Tag Archives: social responsibility

What are you wearing right now? Tube socks from China? A Patagonia fleece? A pair of pants made from hemp? Most people probably don’t think that much about the social and environmental impact of our clothing choices. But our guest this week on Sea Change Radio, Natalia Allen, believes that you don’t have to be wearing a tee-shirt with a slogan to make a statement with your clothes. She’s been called an “conscientious fashionista” who not only promotes more responsible consumer behavior, encouraging us all to think about the environmental and human costs of cheap clothing and textiles, she’s actually producing clothing and accessories that give consumers a stylish set of alternatives. Sea Change Radio host Alex Wise talks with Natalia Allen about making fashion more sustainable, and sustainability more fashionable.

Our guests this week on Sea Change Radio talk about the development of green luxury, and suggest that products that are both luxurious and sustainable may be an important trend. First, Sea Change Radio host, Alex Wise, speaks with Dr. Jem Bendell, a sustainability professor, consultant and author. Next, Alex talks to Beth Gerstein, the Co-founder and Co-Ceo of Brilliant Earth, a socially responsible jewelry company.

Green luxury. The two concepts seem diametrically opposed. We usually equate sustainable lifestyle with one involving sacrifices – driving a smaller car, turning down the AC, or reaching deeper into our wallets to buy pesticide-free fruit. And we think of luxury as something involving “no sacrifice.” But ever-increasing consumer awareness and demand, coupled with product innovation has led us to the dawn of the green luxury age. One in which sacrifices can be minimal. Continue reading →

Sea Change Radio’s Alex Wise speaks with Mark Massara, attorney and long-time activist for the Surfrider Foundation and the Sierra Club, currently serving as VP of Social Responsibility for O’Neill Wetsuits. Mark talks about O’Neill and the challenges the wetsuit industry faces as it attempts the shift to sustainability. Mark also recalls some of the landmark environmental cases he’s argued on behalf of surfers and coastal advocacy groups, underscoring the role the courts can play in preserving our oceans and our earth.

What’s behind the rise in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s? Lifetime exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment such as fossil fuel pollution, as it turns out. This according to a new report from the Science and Environmental Health Network and Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility. Today, CWR co-host Francesca Rheannon speaks with the report’s lead author, Jill Stein, who heads the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities. Dr. Stein also ran for governor of the commonwealth in 2002 on the Green-Rainbow ticket, as well as Secretary of State in 2006.

Dan Henkle, senior vice president of Social Responsibility at Gap Inc, discusses how the company is contributing 50 percent of profits on merchandise in its (PRODUCT) RED campaign to the Global Fund to help women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. Dan Rosan, program director on public health at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), assesses the effectiveness of the PRODUCT (RED) campaign in general and the Gap’s participation in it specifically, as well as discussing the strengths of how the Global Fund functions. Rosan also discusses a recent ICCR report that is the first to benchmark performance on HIV/AIDS across the top 10 biggest pharmaceutical companies globally–and finds company responses to the pandemic sorely lacking.

Dan Viederman, executive director of Verite’, a nonprofit that monitors factories globally for compliance with human and labor rights codes.

Discussion touches on Verité’s work with the Gap on its groundbreaking Social Responsibility Report that disclosed for the first time labor rights violations; Verité’s new report on exploitation of foreign contract laborers in Asia and the Middle East; the challenges of maintaining independence from corporate clients.